


Stay With Me

by Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst, Holiday Angst, M/M, Not explicit relationship, mavin is implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:03:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13094901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes/pseuds/Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes
Summary: After several months of silence, Michael gets a message from someone he thought was long gone.Only, they might not stay much longer.





	Stay With Me

 

It was cold. It was normally cold in Los Santos at night and especially around this time of year. In the suburbs you could see some Christmas lights already having been set up, despite the fact it wasn’t even December yet. The shops were already advertising holiday-themed merchandise.

 

Michael didn’t really care that it was cold. He had gotten somewhat used to it, honestly. 

 

Normally around this time, Gavin would have started playing old christmas songs to annoy the rest of the crew. Except Gavin wasn’t there. 

 

Michael was alone, listening to nothing, staring at nothing. He sat in his car on some empty road in a quiet neighborhood. It was familiar, seeing as it was where he found himself many times over the past few months. 

 

_ “Thanks for bringing me home, Michael.” _

 

_ “It’s not like you could drive yourself.” _

 

_ “Yeah. Thanks, though.” _

 

Michael didn’t have to drive around this small neighborhood every other night, every night where he saw something or did something- anything - that reminded him of the vacant room in Geoff’s penthouse, but he did anyway.

 

He should go home. He’d already gotten a couple texts from Ryan, Jack, and Geoff, asking him to come home soon. They don’t bother asking where he is because they know where he is. They figured it out after the first few times Michael just drove off.

 

_ “He’s- He’s not fucking gone, alright!? He-” _

 

_ “Michael,” Ryan’s voice was stern, but there was a clear sadness in his expression.  _

 

_ “No! Fuck you, Ryan, we can’t just- We aren’t giving up on him!” _

 

_ “We aren’t giving up…” _

 

_ Michael looked at the people gathered around him. Sad, somber expressions and low voices. No cheer. Jeremy stared at the floor and Michael didn’t know if that was even more enraging than the pitiful looks coming from everyone else. _

 

_ “Michael… You need to… You need to understand-” _

 

_ “NO! Fuck you, Geoff! Fuck you all!” Michael’s hands curled into fists at his sides, glaring at the crew. None of them blamed him. Michael lowered his face before snarling out, “I can’t believe you all would just give up on Gavin… Some crew you are.” _

 

_ He spun on his heel, storming out of the room. He ignored the calls for him to stay, to calm down, as he snatched up his keys and his leather jacket. Ryan was the one who ran out after him, voice rising as he continued to call after Michael who continued to ignore him.  _

 

Michael hated how the tears burned, how they made the backs of his eyes hurt, how even as they blurred his vision he could still see the streetlamp that he distinctly remembers having one of his last conversations with Gavin under.

 

_ “Hey, Michael, why do you stay here? Why stay with the Fakes?” _

 

_ “I mean, aside from the fact I don’t want to end up in a damn bodybag? Probably because I don’t have anything else. It’s the whole reason I came here in the first place.” Michael looked at Gavin, who was slumped down in the seat and staring blankly at his hands. _

 

_ “I know how that feels… Kinda… I mean, I had… Something… I had that in England.” _

 

_ “But you came here,” Michael said in sync with Gavin’s “but I came here.” The two stared at each other, for a moment, before starting to snicker at each other. _

 

_ “Bet you regret that now, huh?” _

 

_ “Yeah…” Gavin trailed off, looking at Michael for a long moment before looking back down. A faint smile held his lips and Michael couldn’t help but do the same.  _

 

“Damnit… Damnit, Gav…” Michael hissed, forehead resting on his steering wheel. He knew exactly how easy it would be for him right now to get out of the car and walk into the complex where Gavin’s abandoned apartment was, where an eviction notice was most likely pinned to the door. 

 

His apartment was probably the same as the day he’d vanished. None of the crew had actually been inside his apartment for a while before he left. When Gavin didn’t come in for the heist planning, when he didn’t answer anyone’s attempts to contact him, the crew searched his apartment. He was gone. No signs of struggle and Michael wasn’t sure whether it was better or worse that no one tried to contact them for a ransom.

 

The crew knew they would have to go get Gavin’s things from the apartment sometime soon, but none of them really wanted to go inside. They hardly even looked at Gavin’s office in Geoff’s place.

 

Michael didn’t like how the crew (mostly) behaved as if Gavin hadn’t existed. They didn’t talk about him that much, aside from when they would find something of his and be bitterly reminded of the hole in their crew. It didn’t matter that they were planning to have Matt take over the role of hacker, at least not to Michael. They needed a hacker and Matt was good at it. If Gavin were still here, they would probably joke about how Matt was a better hacker.  

 

Michael flinched as his phone let out a high-pitched ding, a notice that someone had sent him another text. He didn’t even look at it, sure it was probably another text from Jack.

 

_ “Michael.” _

 

_ “What?” _

 

_ “Are… Are you… Are you okay?” _

 

_ “My best friend is gone missing and the people I consider my family have given up on him, so, I’d go with a big fat fucking no.”  _

 

_ “We didn’t give up on him, Michael. We… We just can’t keep looking for someone who-” _

 

_ “For someone who isn’t coming back?” Michael asked, voice harsh. “Someone who just fuckin’ vanished off the face of the earth? Face it, Jack, you’ve fucking given up on him. Talk to me when you’re done lying to yourself.”  _

 

_ “Mi-” Michael slammed the door shut, the wall shaking with the force, before Jack could get another word in.  _

Michael slumped back in his seat, pressing his palms to his eyes. They were cold from resting on the steering wheel, which made it pleasant for his eyes that were hot from crying. Michael noted that he’d been crying more since Gavin left.

 

He hadn’t cried really at all after Ray left, but at least with Ray he didn’t vanish. He didn’t just one day leave behind everything without a trace, without leaving what was basically his family to wonder whether he was dead or not.

 

The ding came again and Michael took a deep, somewhat-calming breath, before picking up his phone from it’s spot on the passenger seat. 

 

He felt his breath lodge in his throat as his eyes focused on the screen. 

 

**Gavin Free has sent a message.**

 

Michael’s hands were shaking as he opened up the message. He hadn’t ever gotten around to removing Gavin’s contact, even after trying to track Gavin’s phone didn’t work. Michael took in a deep breath. It was probably some random asshole who hacked into Gavin’s contact. That explanation made Michael feel calmer, somehow, even if it didn’t quite make sense. 

 

**help**

 

There was a brief moment where Michael’s brain completely blanked at the message. An absurdly simple message that didn’t really make much sense in the current situation. Or really, at all. Maybe it was just that Michael was so tired he couldn’t make much sense of anything.

 

Michael spent a good few moments looking at the screen before another message appeared. A picture, this time. 

 

It was dark and for a moment Michael couldn’t discern anything. Then he started picking out the few details he could. A tile floor, a dark puddle, and a cabinet. Michael wasn’t really sure what he was expecting to see, but he could see the location tagged. 

 

It was some old apartment complex, about five minutes away. Michael quickly texted a message back. 

 

**Hang tight**

 

The message was so familiar it almost made Michael sick, but he tossed his phone back onto the passenger seat and hit the gas. 

 

If any of his crew members could see his driving, they’d be very upset with his driving. Even in the case of a heist, nearly slamming into pedestrians was something that none of the crew wanted to be responsible for. There had been times where Jack hit someone and those were the times that Gavin spent hacking into databases and identifying family ties so that she could send huge, expensive apologies to them. 

 

But Michael didn’t care. Gavin. Gavin was all he could think of. He had to get to Gavin as quick as possible. That always seemed to happen whenever something happened to Gavin.

 

_ “Gavin? Gavin, are you okay?”  _

 

_ “Gavin? Gavin can you hear-?” _ __   
  


_ “ANSWER ME, GODDAMNIT! GAVIN, ARE YOU OKAY?!”  _

 

_ “Michael! Calm the fuck down!”  _

 

_ “I’m going back.” _ __   
  


_ “No! That place is gonna collapse any second now!” _

 

_ “But, Gavin-” _

 

_ A heavy, choked breath came onto the line. “Gavin what?” _

 

_ “Holy shit, Gav!?” _

 

_ “I-” a painful-sounding cough, “I… I barely made it out… Those… Bastards, they shot me.” _

 

_ “Where?” _

 

_ “The-” a brief coughing fit before Gavin continued, “somewhere in the side… Nothing vital, I don’t think… But… I feel like I’m gonna pass out.”  _

 

_ “Okay, hang on, I’m on my way.” _

_   
_ _ “Th… Thanks, Michael.” _

 

Michael hardly paid attention to whether he parked correctly. All he could think about was getting to Gavin. He nearly tripped on the stairs as he ran up to the second level. The first level was just car parking.

 

One of the doors was opened slightly, which caused Michael to slow down for a moment. He’d forgotten his gun in the glovebox. 

 

“Fuck it,” He hissed under his breath and walked over, pushing the door open further.

 

The apartment was small and dark, the only light coming from outside. There was a wall-mounted light that had several moths swarming around it right next to the door. 

 

Michael warily stepped in, cringing at the sound of something cracking under his feet. He stepped aside to see what looked like a broken coffee mug, some of it’s shards flecked with blood. 

 

Michael nervously swallowed and continued further into the apartment, pulling out his phone to use as a light. He wanted to call out for Gavin, but he couldn’t get his voice to work.

 

There was an overturned chair that was of a similar design to a loveseat in what Michael supposed was the living-room half of the apartment and there was a large blood stain on the ground by the hallway. Michael could feel his skin crawling at the sight of a blood trail leading further down the hallway. 

 

The trail led into the bedroom and Michael took a moment to stare at what he saw. 

 

There was a man, sprawled out next to the bed in a puddle of his own blood. He wore black clothes that clearly hadn’t been well-cleaned in months and a pistol was near his outstretched hand. A kitchen knife was stabbed into his throat, blood still oozing from the wound. 

 

Michael sidestepped him, noting the blood trail continued on to the en-suite bathroom. 

 

“Gavin?” Michael called out as he walked over to the bathroom and peered inside. He let out some weird sound at this sight, his phone slipped out of his hand and clattering loudly on the floor as Michael dropped down to the ground and slipped over to the body on the ground. 

 

It was Gavin, leaned up slightly against the cabinet and clutching his stomach where a large red stain had sank into his clothes. 

 

“Gavin! Gavin!” Michael pressed a hand over Gavin’s as he tried to get a response. His other hand went to Gavin’s neck, trying to locate a pulse.

 

His response was a heavy cough, followed by a whine of pain as Gavin opened his eyes and tilted his head to the side. His eyes widened once they started to focus. 

 

“Mi-Michael?” More blood dripped down his chin and Michael suddenly found his voice.

 

“Gavin! Oh- oh my god, Gav.” The tears were coming on again, but Michael didn’t care. The hand that had been searching for a pulse snaked around Gavin’s shoulders and pulled him closer. There was a sharp inhale and Michael mentally reprimanded himself for moving Gavin at all.

 

“Y-you found-” Gavin coughed again, his entire body shaking. 

 

“I-oh my fucking god, Gavin. You- You… You’re alive...”

“T-The bastard shot me… He… Fuck.” Gavin took a deep breath, gritting his teeth

 

“D-Don’t worry… I-I’m gonna get help. Just stay with me, okay? Stay with me.”

 

Michael moved away from Gavin, crawling to pick up his phone and try to call one of the crew, B-Team,  _ anyone _ .

 

His attempts to turn it on failed, seeing as dropping it severely cracked the thing.

 

“Shit. Shit, Shit-”

 

Gavin broke into another coughing fit and Michael ditched the phone in favor of crawling over to Gavin and helping to put pressure on the wound.

  
“Where’s your phone, Gav?” He looked around for a moment before seeing the gold-colored case of Gavin’s phone. It sat on the other side of Gavin, the screen smeared with several bloody fingerprints.

 

Michael snatched it up, quickly dialing in the crew’s number. 

 

“M-Michael… T-There’s no signal. Y-You won’t be able to-” Gavin groaned, tilting his head back again. 

 

“Shit,” Michael said again before going into contacts and finding one of the crew’s contacts. He stiffened when he realized only his contact was still on Gavin’s phone. Everyone else’s was gone. 

 

“I-I’m sorry… I’m so fuckin’ sorry…” Gavin murmured. With the light from the phone screen, Michael could see fresh tears welling up in Gavin’s eyes. 

 

“It’s not your fault… Okay? It’s not your fault some random asshole decided to rob you.”

 

“I-I’m sorry… For… Not calling… Or messaging you… Sooner…”   
  


“You can say you’re sorry later, when help gets here, alright?”

 

“M-Michael… I… I don’t think-”

 

“You’re not going to die in here, alright? You can’t die in here.”

 

“S-Since when did that s-stop me?” He weakly tried to smile, but the pain made it look more like a grimace. 

 

“It’ll be okay, Gav. Just… Hang on…” Michael finally got down one of the crew’s numbers in the phone and quickly sent a message. 

 

**Send help. He’s hurt** , followed by an address that started to blur with the hot tears welling up in Michael’s eyes. Gavin’s bloodstained hand shakily clasped around Michael wrist and he dropped the phone, instead tightly grasping Gavin’s hand.

 

“Gavin, I lost you once and I won’t lose you again. Please… Stay with me...”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
